


The Best Lie

by Alet



Series: Six Months Late, Without Starbucks [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, MadaTobi Week 2018, Sort Of, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 21:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18039209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alet/pseuds/Alet
Summary: Madara is on an undercover mission when Tobirama unexpectedly shows up. He thinks he handles it very well, all things considered.





	The Best Lie

Unobtrusive, pleasant, harmless. Unobtrusive, pleasant, harmless. Madara kept the mental chant going while he sorted through “his” desk. This was his first day undercover as Watanabe Kaito, the unobtrusive, pleasant, harmless secretary who absolutely did not know that the man he was replacing was not visiting a sick family member, but had in fact been quite thoroughly murdered. If things went very, very well (or very, very poorly) then this would also be his last day. Undercover missions were very much not his style. If this mission hadn’t been exclusively involving civilians, it wouldn’t have been possible. Civilians knew the name Uchiha Madara, but they were not constrained by any consideration of accuracy or precision when it came to identifying threats, and always had a hard time identifying shinobi. Apparently they expected horns and fangs. And someone taller.  


“Ah, and this must be our replacement secretary.”  


Madara had been aware of the approaching group of people and it was a relief to finally be able to look at them, even if he did have to keep a small, polite smile on his face as he looked up.  


What he saw shocked him into complete immobility. It was a struggle to keep his expression blank as he processed what his eyes were telling him. Standing next to the oily man who was almost certainly involved in whatever it was Madara had been sent to investigate was Senju Tobirama. His chakra was damped to vanishing and his face was clear of the sneer he habitually wore when speaking to or about Madara, which in all honesty changed his appearance considerably more than the dyed hair or concealed markings, but Madara could no more have mistaken him than if he’d been Izuna.  


“I see you two know each other,” said the other man, looking from one frozen shinobi to the other.  


Madara blurted “No!” at the same time Tobirama gave a clipped “We do.” They glared at each other, but as they were both trying to recover and keep their expressions appropriate for civilians, It was a far cry from their usual. And now not just the man accompanying Tobirama, but other employees nearby were starting to look at them. They had to stop this … whatever this was immediately and diffuse the tension starting to build. Madara’s thoughts raced to come up with some plausible relation that wasn’t “We’ve hated each other since we were children” but his mouth was already opening and he heard himself speak with no input from his brain.  


“We used to date.”  


No shinobi would be able to do anything so blatant as clap their hands across their own mouths, but Madara suspected that some part of his chagrin and regret was visible on his face. That was … fine. Civilians showed their emotions on their faces all the time. Chagrin and regret were certainly appropriate emotions for anyone to show after admitting they had any kind of, of _feelings_ for _Senju Tobirama_. Which Madara definitely didn’t.  


“It was,” said Tobirama in a very decent imitation of a man trying to cover up embarrassment with a brusque determination, “a long time ago. Shall we?” He broke eye contact with Madara and actually turned his whole body slightly towards his companion as if to give the impression that he had utterly dismissed Madara from his thoughts. Madara dropped his own eyes to his desk, trying to seem like a man recovering from a slightly embarrassing outburst.  


“...Of course,” said the other man, blandly courteous. He and Tobirama walked past Madara’s desk and into the office behind him.  


The main office remained carefully quiet.  


Madara took a deliberate breath, in and out. It was actually not a bad cover story, despite coming _completely out of nowhere_ , as it would excuse almost any degree of hostility or awkwardness between them later on. He could pretend that had been his plan from the beginning. This was going to be fine. Madara closed his eyes and sighed, only partially an act for the dozens of eyes turned his way. He let his jaw harden, as if determined to put this behind him, and went back to pointedly straightening his papers.  


He was so fucked.

**Author's Note:**

> I took forever with this one because I kept trying to fit the smut in. I couldn't do it, but rest assured that after a few thousand more words there would have been smut.


End file.
